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This document contains the Strategic Research Agenda to Innovation on Blue Energy developed in the framework of the PELAGOS project (D.4.2.1). Relying on both the current Research & Innvation guidelines and priorities established at European level for exploitating in the most effective way the potential of Ocean Energy and the knowledge acquired the activities of PELAGOS project at Mediterranean level, this document considers the strategic focus areas related to the most promising Marine Renewables Energy technologies in the Mediterranean area.

In Cameroon, as in other countries of the Congo basin region, policy processes and activities related to climate change have been hitherto geared mostly towards mitigation and related questions, with limited concern about adaptation issues. However, the increasing vulnerability of Cameroon to climate variability and change makes adaptation significant to its national climate-change policy. Nonetheless, it remains a challenge to make both adaptation and mitigation occupy the same policy space in Cameroon. This paper builds partly on studies carried out in two community forest carbon initiatives in the southern rainforest of Cameroon. It also argues, supported by existing literature on adaptation and mitigation, that mitigation activities have the potential to produce adaptation outcomes; a situation which avoids duplication of efforts and waste of financial and technical resources, if synergetic options are anticipated and planned. However, whether such integrated approaches succeed and are subsequently reflected in national-level climate policy depends on how actors across different sectors and at different levels engage and carry out their roles. The paper discusses these roles and how they can support each other in pursuing integrated initiatives – a context which is vital for Cameroon.

Laboratory corrosion and scaling testing of metallic materials exposed in high temperature and pressure environments generally involves complex, multi-instrument measurement setups. Here, we present a setup including an autoclave that is instrumented for in-situ electrochemical testing and that contains a ZrO2-based solid-state pH electrode and devices for temperature control and solution stirring. We show results highlighting the importance of adequate pre-calibration of the pH measurement, due to the hysteresis depending on temperature sweep. Additionally, we illustrate how interfacing the autoclave and the electrochemical cell to measuring and controlling instruments, using different data communication interfaces, can create ground loops. These ground loop interferences can introduce significant errors in the measurement, such as a potential shift of >100 mV. In complex, multi-instrument setups, a complete understanding of ground loops may often be difficult. Thus, we recommend systematic checks to identify the ground loops and we propose measures to avoid them. Measurement, 155 ISSN:0263-2241 ISSN:1873-412X

Hydrochar, carbon-rich material produced during the thermochemical processing of biomass, is receiving increased attention due to its potential value as soil amendment. It can increase agroforestry systems’ productivity through direct and indirect effects on growth and soil quality. Hydrochar may also directly help mitigate climate change by sequestering stable carbon compounds in the soil and perhaps indirectly through increased C uptake by trees. In this research, we aim to evaluate how the application of hydrochar produced by two feedstock types, Cynara cardunculus L. (Hc) residuals and sewage sludge (Hs), and in two different doses (3 and 6 kg m−2) could improve the growth and water use efficiency of Populus alba L., a fast-growing tree species largely used in agroforestry as bioenergy crops and in C sequestration. We considered five plants per treatment, and we measured apical growth, secondary growth, leaf area and intrinsic water use efficiency in each plant for the whole growing season from February to October 2022. Our results highlighted that hydrochar applications stimulate the growth and water use efficiency of plants and that the double dose (6 kg m−2) of both hydrochars, and particularly Hc, had positive effects on plant performance, especially during extremely hot periods. Indeed, the year 2022 was characterized by a heat wave during the summer period, and this condition allowed us to evaluate how plants, growing in soils amended with hydrochar, could perform under climate extremes. Our findings showed that the control plants experienced severe damage in terms of dried stems and dried leaves during summer 2022, while hydrochar applications reduced these effects.

Abstract The integrity of PWR pressure vessels is assured by keeping the crack tip stress intensity factor below the toughness of the material under monotonic isothermal loading. To study the effects of sudden cooling associated with a thermal gradient, a specially modified compact specimen has been developed. This has been used to carry out tests in the transition zone with different loading-temperature sequences liable to call the conventional criteria into question. The test is described in detail in Part I of this article [Chapuliot S, et al. Thermomechanical analysis of thermal shock fracture in the brittle/ductile transition zone. Part I: Description of the tests. Engng Fract Mech, 72, 2005, 661–73]. The second part describes numerical investigations to estimate the local mechanical fields at the crack tip and the overall parameters of the fracture mechanics. Finite element thermomechanical calculations are used to interpret the results of these new thermal shock tests using the master curve concept [ASTM E 1921–1997. Standard test method for determination of reference temperature To for ferritic steels in the transition range, 1997] and the Beremin statistical model [Beremin FM. A local criterion for cleavage fracture of a nuclear pressure vessel steel. Metall Trans A, 14A, November 1983, 2287–777].

International audience ; This paper proposes a Deep Reinforcement Learning approach for optimally managing multi-energy systems in smart grids. The optimal control problem of the production and storage units within the smart grid is formulated as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP), and is solved using an actor-critic Deep Reinforcement Learning algorithm. The framework is tested on a novel multi-energy residential microgrid model that encompasses electrical, heating and cooling storage as well as thermal production systems and renewable energy generation. One of the main challenges faced when dealing with real-time optimal control of such multi-energy systems is the need to take multiple continuous actions simultaneously. The proposed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) agent has shown to handle well the continuous state and action spaces and learned to simultaneously take multiple actions on the production and storage systems that allow to jointly optimize the electrical, heating and cooling usages within the smart grid. This allows the approach to be applied for the real-time optimal energy management of larger scale multi-energy Smart Grids like eco-distrits and smart cities where multiple continuous actions need to be taken simultaneously.

Methodology: To carry out the calculation of these agroclimatic indicators, daily data of the following climatic variables were used at a resolution of 5 km: Maximum and minimum temperatures (source: CHIRTS), precipitation (source: CHIRPS), solar radiation (AGMERRA), data of soil (SoilGrids). The indicators were calculated for each month during a period of 33 years (1983 - 2016). With the above, the indicators were calculated per month during 1983 -2016 and finally, in order to summarize the calculated indicators, an aggregation of data was carried out, calculating the average in the following time periods: 1983 - 2016, 1990 - 2016, 1995 - 2016, 2000 – 2016, 2005 – 2016, 2010 – 2016 The purpose for which these indicators were created is to group or characterize the different accessions available in the Genesys database, considering climatic data from where they were collected. For the above, it is necessary to carry out a characterization of zones based on agroclimatic indicators, which are framed in evaluating the following stresses: Heat, Drought and Flooding, in addition to including indicators that capture the behavior of the photoperiod.